Heroes
by Alabaster Ink
Summary: Boruto wanted to be the hero of his own story until his dad stole the spotlight. Modern AU.


**This came about from a tumblr post that I was given permission to write. It is a modern AU that follows the canon ending, so please be respectful. I hope you all enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing. Technically, not even what Boruto thinks up.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

The red wasn't working.

Boruto threw down his colored pencil with a sigh of disgust and proceeded to crumple the sketch up into a ball. Without even looking, he tossed the paper over towards his trashcan, missing it by a foot, and it joined the mass of other failed pieces on the floor. Boruto groaned. He buried his head in his arms and tried very hard not to repeatedly hit his head on the desk.

"Why can't I get this right?" He mumbled to himself.

On his desk lay an array of half-finished sketches, color charts, and character sheets. His schoolbooks were pushed to the side in that haphazard pile only a weekend could create and on top of them were a mishmash of open comic books and manga chapters. Pencils, pens, markers – colored and greyscale – were strewn about the desk in what could only be described as a creative mess. The entire area looked like a crafts store threw up.

Boruto couldn't have cared less. He'd been trying for the better part of a month to make his idea work and so far he'd failed – miserably. The characters didn't match up, the color pallet was wrong, and the entire story fell flat. His inspiration felt lacking and he couldn't figure out what he was doing wrong. Surely the creators of Batman and Dragon Ball Z never had this problem.

He bit back another groan.

"This sucks," Boruto whined as he picked up another pencil. He began twisting the item around his fingers, watching with half-lidded eyes as it twirled and twirled before flying off and landing half-way across the room. "Fuck."

He didn't bother trying to pick it up. That would require moving and moving wasn't something he was particularly inclined to do. It had been a long day; he felt entitled to a little laziness. Boruto then shuffled his papers around and looked down at his notes.

It was for a story he was writing – well, okay, a comic book. Boruto loved comic books – and manga. He loved the combination of pictures and words used to tell a story; how the artist only had to write what was said and just let the characters do the rest. Comics were fun – relaxing; they were like TV only better. And now that he finally had the right idea, Boruto had decided it was high time he try his hand at his own series.

Then he hit a snag.

Boruto always knew he wanted to be the hero of his own story. He wanted to be the one kicking ass and taking names. The problem was that every time he tried to write himself as the big hero, it never worked. The character came off as cheesy – like a kid playing dress up in his father's closet. It was like turning Damien Wayne into Batman. It just didn't work.

Nothing worked for that matter. He'd tried to make the setting into something resembling Metropolis, but that was a bust. Then he tried Gotham, and that was even worse. He'd tried making up a cool villain, but it came off as looking like a bastardized version of Cell. And this wasn't even getting started on all the things wrong with the hero.

"Stupid comics," Boruto mumbled again. "Even my dad would make a better hero."

And wouldn't that be a story. Boruto could see it now: _The Adventures of the World's Number One Knucklehead_. Yeah, that's become popular. Though, his father did have some qualities he could see in a hero – not as many as Boruto – but they were there. Naruto was kind, was always willing to help someone, and tended to work himself into the dirt to achieve his goals, sometimes to his own detriment. He loved almost unconditionally, but wasn't afraid to confront people about their mistakes. It was one of the things that made him such a fantastic leader – one who never saw anyone or anything too low or too high for his notice. He even had the tragic backstory.

Boruto had only recently become privy to his father's less than savory past, and even then he was pretty sure his dad had held back on some of the details. What he did know was that his grandparents were killed when Naruto was a baby and his father had dealt with some unpleasant foster situations until Iruka and Kakashi appeared. There were a whole slew of complications following that, including the fact that his grandfather had apparently been a pretty big deal. That was where his dad became vague. He did know a lot of people looked up to his dad and it was one of the reasons he'd been appointed to the position he had. If push came to shove, Boruto would admit his father would make a better superhero than he would.

But that would change the whole story!

Besides, a whole comic about the daily life of the Prime Minister would be boring as hell. The hero couldn't just be sitting behind a desk all day doing paperwork. Boruto buried his head in his hands only to snap back up again at the sound of his door creaking open. Quickly, he tried to gather his papers together – he couldn't let anyone see what he was working on – but soon realized it was a moot point.

"Oh, it's you," he groused, relaxing back into his chair with a grumbled. "What do you want?"

A _yip_ was his only reply as the pet strut into the room. The old fox had been with his father since before Boruto was born, though, according to Kakashi, the relationship hadn't always been an amicable one. Apparently, the pet used to destroy his father's things before the two started getting along. Why his father kept the animal during those beginning years, Boruto didn't know.

"Don't even think about messing up my room, 'ttebasa. I know it was you who pulled out all my clothes last week. Mom made me clean that up," he said as he looked into the wholly innocent eyes of the fox. A tick formed on his forehead. "And don't give me those doe-eyes either. You know what you did and – no! No! Bad Kurama! Why did you – arg!"

 _Yip_.

Boruto glared at the fox. "You're a menace." He stared at the new mess that was his desk and the animal sitting happily on his papers. If this were a comic book, Boruto would be able to banish the fox away.

Boruto started. Now, there was a thought.

What if he made Kurama the villain? Or perhaps an anti-hero. But no, that wouldn't quite work. A selfish trickster? That might be better. He could…he could…Boruto thought of all the myths he'd read through recently. Foxes were tricksters. They were shapeshifters. In the stories, foxes were powerful. Dad always called Kurama a demon, so maybe Boruto could use that. He could turn him into…into…a demon fox spirit…with nine tails!

Boruto shook his head. No, that was stupid.

Unless…unless, the fox wasn't the main villain. What if there were more demons – more power players? Boruto frantically tried to think of all the people he didn't like. There was Orochimaru, a freaky scientist Boruto had only met in passing, but creeped him out nonetheless. His assistant Kabuto was no better. Then, there was Danzo, a former Prime Minister whose term had lasted only a week before it was discovered he'd had a hand in some very traitorous dealings. Boruto'd never met him, but Uncle Sai and Uncle Sasuke complained about him often enough for Boruto to dislike the very thought of him.

The ideas started to flow.

There would be nine demons, he decided, one for each number of tails. Kurama would have nine and that evil tanuki living in Uncle Gaara's attic would have one. Aunt Karui's friend, Yugito, had a mean cat Boruto swore was a disguised nekomata, and Uncle Bee had a nasty ox living somewhere in his backyard. Animal after animal, and person after person flitted through Boruto's mind. A world suddenly began to appear.

It wouldn't be the metropolitan city he'd originally created. No, now it was more traditional, more rustic. There was less technology and everyone had superpowers. There were people who could shoot out fireballs and heal with a touch, those who could destroy a wall with nothing but a flick of a finger. His pencil flitted between papers, adding details to each character as they came to him. He put people he knew into the story, but instead of drawing them as he saw them now, he tried to imagine how they were when they were younger. In this story, they were his age.

He tried to think of his mother at twelve. She was shy, soft-spoken, but still kind and determined to help others. The unique eyes of his mother's family would be a superpower in and of itself. They could see through walls and people and far, far away.

His Uncle Kiba would be loud and brash, with an entire family dedicated to their dogs. The Inuzuka family dogs were some of the world's best. People from all over used them for the blind, the deaf, the ill. They were in multiple K-9 units and the Inuzuka bred most of Japan's military dogs. Uncle Kiba could be the Wolverine of the story, only with a sense of humor.

Uncle Shino came from a long line of entomologists. He loved bugs – almost more than he loved people. Boruto could totally use that as a superpower. Not like Spiderman, but maybe more like The Ant Queen. He hadn't quite fleshed out the details yet, but he liked the direction.

Uncle Shikamaru, Aunt Ino, and Uncle Chouji were all really close and their families had been tied together for ages. They all dealt heavily with the military, but that was as far a Boruto knew. He liked to think they were spies. Aunt Ino was really good at playing with peoples' minds and Uncle Shikamaru was a certified genius. He liked to imagine them using telepathy or shadow walking, and Uncle Chouji could be their muscle. He was the big heavy-hitter of the group. According to his father, Chouji used to be really into sumo wrestling so maybe he could do something like that.

Boruto tried to think of what to do with Uncle Lee and Aunt Tenten. Both of them were Olympic athletes, winning medals in judo and fencing, respectively. He could see Aunt Tenten pulling weapons out of nowhere, but Uncle Lee was more difficult. Maybe he could be like Nightwing or Batman. He'd save the world without superpowers. But then there was the problem of how to group them. He liked the idea of putting them all in groups of three and those two sort of messed it up. Maybe he could add Uncle Neji? Boruto'd never met his late uncle. According to his parents, Neji had taken a bullet meant for his father and died when they were only teenagers. Dad called him a hero and they'd even named him after Neji. He tried to imagine his uncle as a child. He'd be stern, a bit aloof, and smart. Mom said Boruto had a lot of his uncle's habits, so he added in his ease with martial arts and his dislike of spicy foods. He even contemplated making Neji a starter villain. His dad always said he and Neji hadn't become friends until Naruto beat him in a fight, so maybe Boruto could try and recreate that. He decided to flesh that out later and continued on.

Kurama's tail brushed against the side of his hand, but Boruto swatted him away. "Not now, Kurama, I'm thinking."

Aunt Sakura, Uncle Sasuke, and his dad would be on the same team. He didn't quite know what the teams were for yet, but he liked putting them together in a group. Aunt Sakura would be a loud girl who was really only serious about schoolwork. She'd get better, but from what his dad'd told him Aunt Sakura had had a massive crush on Uncle Sasuke for years and made no secret about it. He liked to think she'd grow out of it and become the doctor of the group. She'd be able to heal everyone she met and also punch rocks into oblivion. Boruto had seen her fight; she had a nasty right hook.

Uncle Sasuke, however, would take a darker turn. He knew, only in the vaguest sense, that his honorary uncle's past was no better than his father's. Both had been orphaned at a young age, though Sasuke was old enough to remember it. Boruto didn't quite know the details, only that Sasuke was able to live off his family's money and that his older brother had become a wanted criminal in the aftermath. His uncle's anger had apparently caused a lot of problems between him and Naruto so perhaps he could make Uncle Sasuke the anti-hero. That would be an interesting twist.

Boruto thought about it for a second. He liked the idea of Sasuke being a troubled kid that tried to fix his problems by himself only to make it worse. He could even have a whole redemption arc based around it. Sasuke would be the hero's rival. He'd be more gifted, start off more powerful. Maybe he'd even give him a special eye power too, considering the fake eye his uncle had in his left socket.

Now was the hard part.

Boruto still wanted to be the hero. He put two whisker marks on the character's face like how he'd done as a child. He added an extra pair a second later after chancing a glance at Kurama. The hair was a bit longer than his father's, but not as wild as his own. His smile was stretched across the character's face (and he ignored the fact that he and his dad had the same grin), but he widened out the angles, making it a bit rounder than his own. He added a jumpsuit and, in his mind, colored it orange. Putting down his pencil, Boruto raised his head and tried to take a step back from what he'd drawn.

He noticed somewhere out of the corner of his eye that the sun had now set, so he'd been at it for a few hours, and Kurama now lay on the windowsill, not sleeping, but definitely looking bored.

Boruto glared. "Don't look at me like that. You're the one who gave me the idea and it's not like you had to stay, you know." Kurama stared for a second and then gave a wide yawn. Boruto raised an eyebrow. "Spoiled overgrown rabbit."

He looked back at his work. What he'd thought had been a mix of him and his dad, now definitely looked more like the pictures he'd seen of his dad as a child – the wild blond hair, the round face, the wide blue eyes. It was like a cartoonist's rendition of Uzumaki Naruto's awkward teenage years.

"Crap."

This was like Comic-Con all over again. The idea was much easier to swallow than the reality. Sure, he'd liked the idea of the whole family dressing up as The Incredibles (with Kurama as Jack-Jack), but the execution had been very underwhelming. This brought up the same feeling. Thinking of his father as the hero was a lot easier than actually going through with it. It was like admitting defeat, like he couldn't even make himself the hero of his own story.

"What do you think, Kurama?" Boruto turned to the animal. Kurama didn't react, just continuing to clean his paws and scratch at his stomach. "I thought so." He stared at the papers strewn about the desk. "I don't even have a plot," he muttered. "Are they on a different planet or what?"

Maybe he should aim for a manga instead. The pacing between manga and comics tended to differ, and the storytelling between the two was vastly dissimilar.

"But why do they have superpowers?" Boruto pondered. He leaned back in his chair and thought about the world he'd just created. In a world that consisted of super-powerful people, there would probably be a lot of conflict. "Maybe they're all military-like," he mused. The more he thought about it, the more he liked it. "And…and everyone is a part of the military, even the kids. And they have to fight people from other countries to bring honor to their home." But that seemed a bit weird. It was too champion-like. Boruto liked more grit. "Scratch that. They're all in the military, but it's like a military of assassins. They fight for money. They're like…like shinobi." It suddenly dawned on him and a grin stretched across his face. Kurama looked up from his cleaning to gaze dispassionately at him. "That's it! They're shinobi, but with superpowers. And they fight and do missions for their homes." He paused, scratching his head for a second and chanced looking at Kurama. "Now how to add the demons?"

He rested his head in his hands and stared at his sketches. If this was a world of super-powerful military regimes, then they'd always be vying for more power. Demons definitely had a lot of power. His eyes rested on his characters, highlighting upon the whiskers he drawn on his hero (he might as well give up and call him Naruto) and suddenly it dawned on him.

"No way," he whispered, his eyes flickering back to Kurama. He thought about Gaara and the tanuki in his attic, about Yugito and her devil cat, and about Bee and his killer ox. "Holy shit, this works."

He began to draw. There was a giant fox with nine tails, a tanuki with one, and a cat with two. He mixed the ox with an octopus because an eight-tailed ox just looked stupid, but adding tentacles somehow made it cool. He thought of the zookeeper down the street and made a four-tailed monkey. Uncle Shino's wife had an obsession with beetles and so he gave her one with six wings and a tail because seven wings just wouldn't work. There was a turtle that belonged to one of the nicer lords his father dealt with and Boruto gave it three tails. The man that owned the nearby onsen was given a five tailed dolphin-horse for no other reason than Boruto thought it was awesome, and he turned the class pet, Saiken, into a six-tailed slug.

Boruto continued to flesh out this world. There would be clans, internal conflict, wars being made even before the hero was born. It would be an entire society of blood for blood and an eye for an eye. The peace would be fragile and people wouldn't be able to let go of grudges. That was where the hero stepped in. Boruto was reluctant to name him Naruto, but at this rate, it seemed like his dad had really stepped into the spotlight.

Beside that, Boruto could see his dad in this world. He could seem him as a young, naïve child, with nothing more than a dream to be something. His dad's past fit in well; he would be lonely and craving attention, wanting nothing more than the acknowledgement of those around him. He would fight for the people he cared about, want to protect them and grow stronger for them. It would become his dream to stop the hatred – to have people cooperate with each other rather than fight. Everything would be working against him, but Boruto found himself rooting for him. He wanted his dad to win.

Suddenly the story worked. Boruto didn't notice as Kurama curled up on his lap; he was too involved in what he was doing. He added the colors, created the country, made up names and backgrounds. Then, when he was finally finished with all the notes, he picked up a fresh piece of paper and drew a mountain.

 _Once upon a time…_

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Uzumaki Naruto yawned as he tiptoed up the stairs. It was three in the morning and he wanted nothing more than to collapse on top of his bed, pull his wife close, and go to sleep. He could already imagine how soft the bed would feel, how nice it would be to shut his eyes and not have to force them open again. Naruto smiled just thinking about it.

He reached the top of the stairs and tried to quietly walk across the hardwood flooring. It proved a difficult endeavor if only because the wood was a bit old and tended to squeak. He made it to his daughter's door and peaked in to see if she was sleeping. She was, curled up under the blankets and clutching her blankie tightly to her chest. He wanted to go in and give her a kiss, but refrained if only because she was such a light sleeper and he didn't want to wake her up. Instead, he blew her a kiss and whispered under his breath, "Goodnight, Hima."

He then closed the door softly behind him and continued down the hallway. Upon reaching his son's room, Naruto was surprised to find light streaming from underneath the door. Forehead crinkling, Naruto gently pushed open the door and couldn't help smiling at the sight that met him.

Boruto sat slumped in his chair, his head resting on the desk, papers and pencils strewn around him. His hand still held an orange colored-pencil, though it sat loosely and threatened to tip over and fall. Drool dribbled down his son's chin to pool on his sleeve. Naruto held back a laugh.

On silent feet, Naruto made his way over to the boy. He wasn't really worried about waking him up – Boruto was a very heavy sleeper – but he'd rather be safe than sorry. It wasn't until he actually reached his son, that Naruto noticed the overweight fox sleeping on Boruto's lap.

"Kurama," Naruto whispered and the fox lazily opened his eyes. He starred at the man as if to ask why Naruto had decided to interrupt his nap and flicked his tail. Naruto jerked his head. "Come on, get down. Boruto needs to get to bed." Kurama just continued to look at him for a second, before he yawned, stretched, and hopped off his improvised bed. Naruto twitched. "Lazy little…" but he cut off the curse. Even if Boruto was asleep, it had become a habit.

Naruto looked back down at his son, at the pencils and papers that lay like a lopsided halo around his head. He wouldn't be surprised if Boruto had some graphite stains on his cheek. Naruto sighed and reached out to grasp the twelve-year-old under his armpits. "Come on, Boru. Bedtime."

Boruto mumbled something unintelligible under his breath, but otherwise remained deep in sleep. His father carried the boy over to his bed and arranged him gently under the covers. Boruto was quick to snuggle into his pillow, mumbling a bit before falling even further into slumber. Naruto smiled.

He reached down to kiss his son's forehead. "Goodnight, Boru." Naruto then backed away and was surprised when Kurama leapt up onto the bed to snuggle into the blankets. "Oh, so you're gonna sleep here tonight?" Kurama opened one eye to stare at the man. "Fine, just don't come scratching at my door to be let in later." The fox only closed his eye in response and Naruto shook his head. "Alright, be that way."

The Prime Minister then spun around to turn off the desk lamp. He stopped. It wasn't that he was really looking – he knew how Boruto was about that – but more that it was hard to ignore. Drawing upon drawing lay about the wood, children he once knew staring back at him. He could see his wife, Sasuke, Sakura, Neji and so many more. They lay so perfectly preserved on paper that Naruto couldn't help but stare.

And then he saw the page his son's head had been resting on.

It wasn't completely done, but Naruto could make out the heads on the mountain, the tops of houses and the symbol for 'Fire' in the distance. It looked so real, like he was gazing at a photograph. But that wasn't what caught his attention. No, what drew his eye was the picture below it – one of a blond haired boy in orange hanging from a rope.

At first, Naruto thought it was a rendition of his son, but then thought better of it. The hair wasn't as wild, nor as long, but more spiky and similar to how his had been in his youth. The face was rounder and the eyes didn't quite match up. Naruto also knew Boruto would only wear orange if forced.

Naruto's eyes widened in realization.

They traveled back up to the top of the page where a small, working title sat hastily written. A smile stretched across his face and his entire countenance softened as his fingers traced over the words. There was warmth that filled his chest.

Taking one last glance at the papers, Naruto reached up to flick off the desk lamp and submerged the room in darkness. He resisted the urge to kiss his son again and quietly tiptoed from the room, leaving his son's drawings alone on the desk. He risked one last glance at the boy before closing the door and retreating to his own bed.

Inside, Boruto turned over and released a snore, subconsciously moving his arm up to cover his eyes from the bright moonlight streaming in through the window. The light shone throughout the room, highlighting upon the desk and making the characters appear to come to life. It outlined each person and seemed to make the title pop. Orange ink shone across the page.

 _The Tale of Uzumaki Naruto_.

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 **So I hope you all enjoyed it. It ended up slightly different than I expected but I still sort of like it. I hope you all enjoyed and please review. I appreciate constructive criticism, but flames do not help writers improve. Thank you very much for reading and I hope you have a nice day!  
**

 **~AlabasterInk**


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